Tag: art
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Sullivan 250 | July 1776 at Island Flats: When Independence Reached the Holston
Third in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America March 2026 | 3 of 12 In July 1776, independence was declared in Philadelphia. Along the Holston River near Island Flats, it arrived as a crisis. The Battle of Island Flats, also called the Battle…
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Hicks Block, Reborn
CONDENSED VERSION Perhaps you, like me, have been following the renovation of the Hicks Block Building at Broad and Market in downtown Kingsport. If not, search “Hicks Block – Kingsport” on Facebook and look through the photos. Architect Kattie Stanton-Casebolt and her husband Eric bought the building just in time to save it from demolition…
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Where Tennessee Begins
A friend recently observed that the Holston River just upstream of Kingsport cuts across the ridges, carving a circuitous channel and steep bluffs. You can see exactly what he means as you cross the I-81 bridge and look down at the sheer rock faces dropping into the water. But just a few bends later, the…
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Powdered Wigs and Coonskin Caps
I found myself thinking about the inaugural nonstop flight from TRI Airport to Washington Dulles in Northern Virginia—and about my daughter-in-law being on that very first plane, returning home with photos of our nation’s capital glowing in Christmas lights. The Capitol dome was illuminated, and monuments stood lit against the winter sky. It was a…
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1948: Appeal to the Great Spirit
Do you ever see a photograph that triggers a memory? Recently, I discovered that Ancestry.com has digitized many of our nation’s yearbooks. In the process, I stumbled on the 1948 Maroon & Grey—my mother’s final yearbook at Dobyns-Bennett. It offers a remarkable window into student life in that era. Twenty school years later, in 1967–68,…
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Tennessee in 10 Minutes
I was recently talking with colleagues about the early development of modern Tennessee and why the first counties were incorporated in two pockets: East Tennessee along the upper Tennessee Valley and Middle Tennessee along the Cumberland River basin, initially leapfrogging Southeast Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau. I couldn’t find a succinct description, so I decided…
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Different by Design: Why Downtown Kingsport Streets Feel Safer
Second in a Series Safety isn’t just about statistics. It’s also about how a place feels when you walk its downtown streets, drive its roads, or raise your family there. Kingsport’s long history of thoughtful planning has created a city that feels safe by design, not just by numbers. When Kingsport was incorporated in 1917,…
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Everyday Heroes
by Deborah Daugherty, Past President, Rotary Club of Kingsport A little background: the first conversations had about this art sculpture and who it would honor started almost five years ago, as four of us began making a strategic plan for how Rotary Club of Kingsport should celebrate their centennial year with the 100th celebration planned…
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Kingsport’s Potential Noted…in 1876
Today we think of Kingsport as the Model City incorporated in 1917. But there was a previous town incorporated in 1822 that we often overlook in history. It’s interesting to see newspaper articles published two generations before Northern industrialists arrived on the scene to build the city we know today. The time period was 1876–slightly…
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Kingsport’s Rising Popularity: 637 New Families in a Year
Over the past year, Kingsport has attracted 637 new families from 45 different states, averaging roughly 2.6 out‐of‐region arrivals per workday. In contrast, May 2025 alone saw 78 families move here from 27 states—an equivalent of about 3.7 families per workday. Of those 78, just 33 were home purchases (accounting for nearly $18 million in…
Kingsport Spirit 